In Search of Buddha's Daughters by Christine Toomey

Author:Christine Toomey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Experiment

On the evening the sesshin ends, a nun ushers me into Aoyama Roshi’s private quarters. Throughout the long hours of ceremony over the previous days, I have watched her serious features sometimes break into a broad, slightly lopsided, toothy smile. It lights up her face and radiates warmth, reflecting equanimity acquired through more than seven decades spent following the Buddhist path. It is this smile that greets me as I kneel opposite her at a low wooden table.

Apart from Jakucho Setouchi, Aoyama Roshi is probably the most well-known nun in Japan. She is a revered teacher and the nun of highest standing within the hierarchy of Soto Zen. Every month, when fifty of Japan’s most senior Soto teachers gather for discussion, Aoyama Roshi is the only woman invited to attend. In theory, regulations governing the Soto Zen order now offer nuns equality with monks. But as I knew from my conversation with Jakucho, the deeply hierarchical and patriarchal nature of Japanese society has, for centuries, kept nuns in most orders in positions subservient to monks.

One of the most significant outcomes of the ruling of the Meiji Restoration enabling monks and nuns to marry was to turn the majority of the country’s Buddhist temples into virtual family businesses. When the majority of monks married and had children, the custom of fathers passing stewardship of temples to their sons was born and has continued for generations. As a result, less than 5 percent of the thousands of Soto Zen temples in Japan are now run by nuns. This hereditary practice also led, in some instances, to a dilution of the monks’ dedication to the dharma. The drunkenness and adulterous affairs of some monks became common gossip and public respect dwindled.

While in the past it was mandatory for families to be registered with a local Buddhist temple, to which they paid regular dues, this custom has waned. As a result, the income of many temples has virtually dried up and many now stand empty. As far as many “temple sons” are concerned, Japan’s affluent and consumerist secular society offers more interesting opportunities than following in their fathers’ footsteps. The marked change in recent years, however, is that growing numbers of “temple daughters” are choosing to take their place. In the absence of sons wanting to become monks to take over the running of family temples, daughters are increasingly becoming nuns to take up these leadership roles. “This is a significant shift and a clear-cut difference from when I was young,” Aoyama Roshi explains.

Aoyama Roshi is eighty years old at the time of our meeting and began her monastic training at the age of five. At the request of her parents, an aunt who was a nun became her teacher and took her to live in an unheated temple high in the snowy mountains of the Japanese Alps in Nagano. The choice of whether she would want to continue on the monastic path when older was left to her, but she had few doubts.

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